July 01, 2009    Headlines

Rockfish Reopens Tuna? Already! Maybe

On Wednesday 7-1 Todd Arcaleo of Chris's Landing reported outstanding bottomfishing at Point Sur with big sacks of vermilion, yellow and school rockfish to go with 20 lings on the boat. Local reefs are producing limits, but the quality is much smaller. They are running to Point Sur on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday or anytime there are 20 anglers on board. Striper schools have reconvened along the beaches with surf anglers scattered from Sea Cliff in Santa Cruz County to the mouth of the Salinas River. Ly Tu said an 8-pounder was taken Monday morning on sand crabs at Sea Cliff. We are seeing flat, foggy cool weather along the coast. Around the Bays there is a transition zone of breeze off the fog and temps in the 70s and 80s and inland the winds are light and the temps are pushing into the 90s. The coastal weather buoys are reporting light winds under 5 knots over a 3 to 4 foot swell. The forecast calls for nearly dead calm weather through Monday with light winds and fog coast side. If you are looking to get your kids out and not risk seasickness this is your window of opportunity and a great time to get out for some white meat. We here at USAFishing strongly support fishery conservation, unfortunately we can't say the same of most California anglers. We are at a crossroads and unless anglers support conservation groups (that our currently waging a losing battle against the multi- million $ lobby) we will lose every key fishery that is connected to the delta. If you think that these "water issues" won't affect your favorite fishery you are likely wrong. The effects will be widespread and include the continued closure of California and Oregon saltwater salmon fisheries. The state water projects are being consolidated and the governor is looking to toss the only Bay-Delta protections we have and ship water from Shasta and Oroville directly to LA swimming pools and subsidized cotton farmers in Westland's. If these water projects go through you can kiss goodbye (as in forever) our salmon, and our striper and sturgeon fisheries will continue to decline. We don't have an ocean salmon season this year or last because of too much water being pumped from the delta. If these water projects get passed we will have none in the future. At no time in the past has it been so critical that our readers understand these issues and support the work that the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is doing. Bottom line..... It's time to get off your ass and support the CSPA or in a few short years there will be NO salmon, striper and sturgeon fisheries and they won't ever recover. No group has done more over the past two decades to protect fisheries than CSPA. In the past two months USAFishing readers have raised nearly $10,000 for the CSPA but much much more is needed. Please visit their website and learn more about all the great work they are doing. Become part of the solution and support the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance today! Mike Aughney At this time it looks like it will be 2010 before we will be back to salmon fishing. Until then it's rockfish, tuna and crabs. Upcoming Events: USAFishing proudly supports the many fishery and wildlife organizations that benefit anglers and hunters throughout Northern California. Does your organization have an upcoming event? Contact us at fishsite@aol.com and we will gladly post the information on our reports pages. The BAY AREA SPORTFISHERS CLUB meets the second Wednesday of each month at the I-Hop restaurant at Stevens creek and Lawrence Expy & Hwy280 in Santa Clara. The club has monthly local fishing events and trips each month and supports the Monterey Salmon and Steelhead hatchery and Fishing in the Cities for Kids programs. Annual Alaskan, Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Etc. trips are planned each year.  See: www.bayareasportfishers.com for more information please call us. Blake Broadway 408-263-5488 Caught Fish? Looking for timely informative updates? Check out a FREE trial to the Northern California Hotsheet, California's fastest growing fishing newsletter. The Hotsheet is emailed three to four evenings per week direct to your desktop. No hunting the web for information or waiting on an outdated magazine to arrive in the mail. These in-depth reports keep you on top of what is happening TODAY so you can catch more fish tomorrow! Just $3.50 per month when you subscribe for one year. You can receive a free week's trial copy by e-mailing a request to fishsite@aol.com